


In the Flesh

by TessaTheDreamer



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Gen, Panic Attacks, The Mindscape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-29 20:38:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17210543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TessaTheDreamer/pseuds/TessaTheDreamer
Summary: Thomas appears in the Mindscape as if he were a Side. The impossibility of that baffles Logan. Everything starts to crumble.





	In the Flesh

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr @angels-twice-descending

One minute, the sun was shining and the fresh wind was blowing through the open window, the next the light dimmed and the air went cold. Logan felt his stomach twist. Something was not right. He heard a crash behind him - Roman had dropped a mug - and turned around to see a new arrival, standing in the middle of the room, eyes wide with confusion. At first, Logan thought it was a new Side. With Thomas' face and quite a nice outfit, he might have been. But he knew all the Sides that existed. This was not a Side.  
"What's going on?" He said in a voice that could only belong to Thomas.  
Logan's mouth dropped. He walked up to him and touched his arm. It was made of flesh and bones. Impossible. Hosts never appeared in their Mind Palace's unless they were specifically instructed to do so by the facets and, even then, they weren't made of flesh. They were more like ghosts or projections.  
"Oh no, Logan, what are we gonna do?" Patton said in a slightly higher, panicky voice.  
"What's going on, you guys? How did you summon me? I was just..." Thomas faltered.  
"This is not good," Roman muttered, "this is not good. This is very not good."  
"Shut up, everyone, all of you, I have to think!" Logan raised his voice.  
"But... Will you explain what's going on?" Thomas whispered.  
Logan touched his temple and dived into his database. He filed through, looking for occurrences like so, but he found nothing. This was entirely new and impossible.  
"Okay," he looked up again at the Sides and Thomas staring at him impatiently, "this isn't supposed to happen. Hosts do not just appear in the Mind Palace."  
"Yeah, I think we all know that, Mr Obvious," Ro said.  
Logan glared at him, then continued, "I do not have any information regarding what one should do when such a situation occurs, but I will find a resolution. In the meantime, let's all hope nothing goes wrong."  
A vase of flowers fell off the dining table in the other room with a crash.   
"Okay, something is going wrong, so think faster, Forrest Grump," Roman said.  
"Alright, Thomas - sit down - and you two - make sure he doesn't panic or break anything else. I will try to find an answer."  
As soon as they sat down on the couch in the living room, the ceiling in the kitchen started to crumble, falling onto the floor like snow.  
"Think fast, Logan" he muttered to himself, pressing his fingers against his temple and pacing back and forth.  
Patton, impatiently bouncing his leg, got up and walked over to the window. He looked out, not onto the fields and forests that were usually there - created by Thomas, but at the outside world - the real world. Something was definitely off.  
"Thomas, what are you doing?" Patton turned around at the sound of Roman's voice.   
"I don't know. Things keep appearing in my hands, I don't know how to stop it," Thomas frowned.   
He was right. A plastic hand had just appeared on his lap. Then a black stuffed toy which closely resembled a dog. A pile of new stuff towered before him.  
The walls and ceilings were now falling apart, big pieces of clay covering the floor. The white paint coated the surfaces. It looked like snow and ice. Patton resisted the urge to scoop it up into a snowball.  
Then, as Logan turned back to them, opening his mouth, a hole opened in the middle of the living room. The coffee table fell inside, as well as the pile of new things Thomas accidentally summoned. The Sides and Thomas, screaming, cowered by the walls as the hole grew larger and larger.  
"What do we do?" Roman shouted from one side of the room over the crashes and the roars of the black hole.  
"I don't know! This- all of this," Logan gestured around him, "it defies logic. There's no instance where this could happen."   
The ceiling crashed completely and fell into the black hole. Rain poured through, showering the Sides, who clutched to the walls, which were luckily still left standing.  
"Wait, where's Virge?" Patton said, out of nowhere.  
Logan looked around. How could he not have noticed it? Virgil wasn't with them.  
The Sides and Thomas climbed around the widening hole to Anxiety's room. As they entered, the walls of the living room collapsed into the hole.  
Virgil was indeed in his room. He was curled up on his bed, hands covering his ears, his hoodie up and harsh breaths coming from his direction. Patton walked over slowly.  
"Virge? Are you alright?" He asked.   
Virgil turned around to them and wiped his face, still visibly trembling. He shook his head.  
"Virgil is of no help to us!" Roman exclaimed, "Soon enough his Room will collapse too."  
"I got it!" Logan exclaimed, "Thomas is here because of a very sudden and anxiety inducing situation! He retreated into his head as a way of closing off from the world."   
Thomas bit his lip, thinking, then walked over to Virgil and sat on his bed. Slowly he reached out and hugged the trembling Side. Virge burrowed his head in Thomas' shoulder.  
"It's okay you feel this way, but it's not forever. It'll be over soon. And I will have to face the consequences, but that's life. It makes me stronger. It makes us stronger, Virgil."  
They stayed like that for a couple of minutes as Virgil's breathing slowed down.   
The walls stopped crumbling and the roaring quieted. The bits of walls on the floor slowly faded away. Thomas was fading away too, still hugging Virgil. He glanced at the three other Sides.  
"It was nice being here in the flesh," he said and disappeared.


End file.
